10 more days of teaching!
Very exciting for all of us here... We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, with probably about 70 people attending. Everyone pitched in and cooked something, so we had a kind of random meal- staples like turkey and stuffing next to rice and beans and empinadas, and then really random stuff like pumpkin pudding contributed by a creative teacher. After, it started pouring, but that didn't stop the football game, which ended up being more of a "see who can dive most spectacularly into to massive puddles" game. I also have had a teaching epiphany- last Wednesday, it was miserably hot; the kids didn't want to be there and neither did I. I discovered to awesome power of bribing, which got me through the day. I told my classes that if they behaved and were silent, then we could go outside for the last part of class. Then, in a stroke of genius, I told my kids that they were allowed to punch anyone who wanted to ruin the plan by talking. Yes, I know, potential for disaster and not PC and all, but it worked fantastically, and no one actually got punched. They were near angelic, and quickly shushed any boy who forgot the plan for a second (or, as I suspect is the case for some of my kids, didn't actually realize that they were talking out loud). So now I'm brainstorming for other ways to bribe my classes. In other news, the kitten has taken to biting really hard, which is not very endearing. I think it is his revenge for keeping him in a pen all day while we are at school. Anyways, I'm off to do some last-minute lesson planning!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Since the majority of teachers here are American, we get today and tomorrow off for Thanksgiving, even though Belize does not celebrate it. So today we are having a huge Thanksgiving dinner, with a game of football afterwards. Lots of family and friends are down visiting teachers, so it's been lots of fun lately. Last weekend 5 of us went to Mexico where we immersed ourselves in the culture and went to-- a mall!! We also went to 2 movies, and ate at McDonalds. The excitement of this probably won't translate, but you have to understand there are no malls or McDonalds, and only 1 movie theater, in the whole country of Belize. I did actually have a cool cultural experience, though. It was the anniversary of some Mexican revolution, and there was a 5 hour long parade (I'm not exaggerating). At the end of the parade, some of the Mexican army did demonstrations, like disarming someone who is coming at you with a machete, using a bamboo pole. There were also people in traditional dress- girls with the huge, colorful skirts, and men with sombreroes. Last week was the end of term, and after hours of grading, a trip to Mexico was just perfect.
Anyways, more importantly- I am finally putting up some pictures!! So here we go--
First, a couple of weeks ago, the teachers got together and did a photo scavenger hunt. We had a list of things to take pictures off, and weren't allowed to spend any money. It was a crazy, funny day. So here are some of the pictures!

We had to get a picture with an orchid, and a circus animal (we cheated a little on that one

We also had to be in a boat, and on a bike (we are on the street we live on, by the way)...

Here is my roommates and I on Halloween- Ali was Chichita Banana, Alison was a farmer, Ann went as her laundry bag, I was a pirate, and Miriam was "Spring." I thought it was pretty creative!

This is a Goliath beetle that one of my students brought it. He caught it in Guatemala. That's a normal sized clothespin by it, so you get an idea how big it was.

And finally, here is the most spoiled cat in Benque.

This has been quite an eventful week in a very St. Francis way- I have managed to accumulate 2 pets, a baby white rat and a tiny kitten! The rat was a gift from one of my students, and stays in a nice cage in the classroom. The kitten followed one of the altar boys to Mass. It is only about 4 weeks old, and is extremely cute. The boys were so excited when I said I'd take it home, because they knew it would die otherwise. They christened it Aslan (from the Chronicles of Narnia). It definitely has to grow into that name! Right now it is so tiny you can hold it in one hand. It looks like puss n' boots from shrek 2, when it was trying to look pathetic-- the kitten has these HUGE eyes, and it sits there and just looks at you.

Alison is not a huge cat fan, and 2 of my roomies haven't even seen it yet because they are away this weekend, but hopefully it's cuteness will win them over....

On a more serious note, please pray for one of my students. He is seriously depressed and may be suicidal. There is no counseling or medicine available in Belize, but fortunately he came to his teachers for help. So we are working with the priests to try and help. We can definitely use all the prayers we can get, though!

Just a quick note to say I can finally understand why people would want to vacation in Belize. The weather has been amazing yesterday and today- 77, sunny, with a nice cool breeze, and cool enough at night to sleep with a blanket. Supposedly it is going to stay like this until February. Even though the returning teachers had told us that the weather would eventually get this way, we didn't believe them cause it was continuously ridiculously hot. And then, literally overnight, we get gorgeous weather. If anyone wants to come visit, now is the time!!

Ah, teaching...

This morning while we were walking to school, one of
the other teachers asked me if I was ready for my
classes today. I had to pause, because I realized I
never am ready-- I can be prepared, but my kids come
up with new, random things every day that suprise me
every time. So I thought I'd share some of the weird
little things that my students do.
- the other day, my kids told me they couldn't
understand me because I talk in paragraphs. I still
haven't quite figured out what they mean. One of
their other teachers has an English accent, and they
claim not to understand him because he speaks in
cursive.
-I am teaching my freshman girls about temperature,
and we started on the Kelvin scale. They all giggle
when I talk about it, because here Kelvin is a common
guy's name. Who knew?
-I have a couple biology classes who never fail to
amaze me. A couple of times I have turned around from
the board to catch them in the act of removing the
sink from the lab bench. I don't really know what
they plan on doing with it... There is one really
tiny boy nicknamed Chucky who is a tough little
terror- he constantly picks on the other boys. They
call it "molesting"--it comes from the spanish word
molestar (sp?), which means poking or hitting, but it
always makes you pause when a students yells out,
"Miss! he is molesting me!" Anyways, Chucky has been
walking around with a post it note on his forhead that
says kiss me. Apparently it has been rather successful
for him.
-Another funny phrase the kids use is "stoning." They
yell, "Miss! he is stoning me with paper!" If someone
throws something at them...

Anyways, got to go-- pictures coming soon!